03 June 2016

If You Build It -- And Have Wine -- They Will Come

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Torresella for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

I've decided that all of our summer festivities will revolve around our backyard this year. I'm taking a bit of a field of dreams approach, attempting to build something awesome. Somewhere all of our friends want to be.

If You Build It -- And Have Wine -- They Will Come. Write that down.In a highly related note, before I continue, if you have any foolproof ways of preventing mosquito bites, I AM ALL EARS. Man, I could be wearing the deepest of deep woodsmen sprays and those jerk faces still get me.

We've been patiently trying to spruce up our back yard and patio area for the past year. When I say patient, I mean we've been searching religiously for a great patio set that didn't break the bank. Everything we found was either ugly and cheap quality or of course amazing and way out of our price range. Although I was digging our hodgepodge patio decor, I was still diligently searching for a matching set.

A few weeks ago though, I found a major score with an incredibly affordable set from my favorite place on earth, World Market. If you've never been to World Market, you're doing it all wrong. Think wall-to-wall pineapples, flamingos and bright bold colors at affordable prices.

Here is the before of our patio. It was cute but quite the variety of pieces:

And here is the far more put together after:

We invited some friends over to break in the new outdoor digs. When CB came home and saw the marble cheese board sitting on the table, ready to be filled with goat cheese, his eyes lit up! His greatest thrill in life is a cheese plate.... as is mine. I served our friends goat cheese (mixed with a little honey) on bagel chips topped with fresh strawberries and peaches.

Ingredients

4oz Goat Cheese

1 Tablespoon Honey

Top with Sliced Strawberries + Peaches

Serve on Toast or Cracker

Aside from goat cheese, my thrills also include VINO! Le Duh.

Wine wine wine, down into my belly!

I served Torresella Wine Pinot Grigio. Not only is @Torresella is light, refreshing and perfect for any occasion, it was particularly tasty on our new patio set! It's an elegant wine, but certainly casual enough to bring to a weekday patio party!

Torresella also has a strong commitment to the environment and utilizes sustainable practices like leveraging solar roof panels to self-sustain the majority of the vineyard’s power requirements! Cool, right? Like I said, it's certainly a Pinot Grigio you can feel proud to serve, or bring to any kind of get together! Read: feel free to bring some over to my place ANYTIME, y'all!

We hung out and chatted until well past sundown. This was our first real glimpse into our first full summer in the new house. CB and I, while cleaning up, both insisted that we absolutely need to have friends over far more often. Not only does it save you money from going out to the bars, it's nice to actually stay home and get to enjoy the big home purchases that you worked so hard to be able to afford.

I adore your new patio. It's so perfect for summer. I just cleaned mine up and pulled out my cushions and tables and can't wait to have patio parties as well. Tip for the bugs, cranberry chews or pills. I take two pills every morning and have yet to be bitten by anything! Or dryer sheets, for some reason they hate bounce and those are safe to rub all over .

Your patio looks so adorable! Love the outdoor rug and those pillows. We're working on sprucing up our outdoor area too. It's slowly getting there. Oh and as for mosquito bites,I got some anti-mosquito bracelet things off of amazon and they seriously worked. I am normally covered in bites and after 4 days in Florida last month, I only got ONE. Miracle. And that wine sounds delish - I love pinot grigio!